While Clean Slate has undoubtedly made a positive impact in Michigan, the law can still be refined to maximize its impact.
In its report, Safe & Just Michigan identified issues with the current expungement process:
- It’s complicated. Legal aid is not necessary, but it can be a frustrating process to navigate. Pro bono services are limited by funding and capacity issues.
- People may not be aware of the automatic process and are unable to check if their record has been sealed. Thus, they may “check the box” unaware of the benefits of the law.
- The MSP rules engine has blind spots. Offenses without an MCL (statutory) code are not automatically expunged, typically an issue with older criminal offenses.
- It has an impact on open cases with “hanging charges.” It’s common for prosecutors to leave charges in non-priority cases open indefinitely. This can only be addressed at the county level and requires courts and the local prosecutor’s office to work together to close these open cases by reporting the final dispositions of these cases to MSP.
- Delays in processing felony expungements by the rules engine and a lack of flexibility in its interpretation of intervening convictions.
- Commercial background check companies are slow to update their records, and there is minimal oversight and limited recourse to those whose records have been misrepresented to prospective employers and landlords. Clean Slate holds individuals criminally liable for disseminating nonpublic information, but the law doesn’t specifically address what if any liability companies will face.
Safe & Just Michigan continues to advocate for additional oversight of commercial background check companies, whose records may not be up to date and are therefore misrepresentative to potential employees or landlords.
Safe & Just Michigan is also advocating the creation of a publicly funded Clean Slate Portal, where people can check their records for free and avoid “checking the box” on their past criminal records.
“We have and will continue to advocate for the implementation of a Clean Slate portal,” said Safe & Just Michigan Clean Slate Program Manager Kamau Sandiford. “We believe that the lack of any type of notification process, letting people know when their offenses have been expunged means that people will continue to check the box on employment or housing applications even when they may not have to do so.”
Cooper added that criminal record sealing should be viewed as an investment that serves both families and communities.
“If you get someone an expungement, you’re going to see a 23% increase in their income in the first year, they’re going to be 11% more likely to be employed. Those are public goods,” Cooper said. “They’re going to pay taxes on that money, they’ll be able to support their families better, they’re going to be out of cycles of criminalization and poverty that take up a huge amount of public services.
“We have people who are underemployed and not producing or paying the kind of taxes that they could if they had better jobs, supporting their families and others in the community the way they could. And it just doesn’t need to happen.”
